2010 Tristar Obak Baseball

It seems like what was once old is now new with all of these older throwback designs and sets being released.  Tristar carries on this trend with the release of 2010 Obak baseball.  Each $3.00 pack contains 4 cards and 1 T-212 mini card.  Randomly inserted are autographs, serially numbered parallels, back variations, short prints, cut signatures, T-212 mini autograph and more.  The pack also states that this is the 100th anniversary (1910-2010).  I picked up a few packs for kicks and here is what the first pack yielded:

#55 Toby Harrah

I love the information of the backs.  On 6/25/76, Toby became the only shortstop to play every inning of a doubleheader and not get a single ball hit to him.  Hard to imagine, but wow!

#44 Jason Heyward

I don't know if this is a short print, but seeing how I'm a Braves fan and collector I was very pleased finding this card in the pack.

#12 Cal Ripken Jr. - T-212 mini

Another trend I've been getting into with baseball cards are these mini cards so that was a big selling point for me with this set.  The fact that my one per pack mini was of Ripken was even better!  The back of the card has a circle around the #12.  I'm guessing that has some sort of significance.

#60 Emil Ogden Yde

I have no clue who this guy is, but the back again gives some interesting information.  He once lost a game without ever throwing a pitch!  On 4/11/30, while playing for the Hollywood Stars he entered an 8-8 game against the Oakland Oaks in the 11th inning and balked home the winning run.  Wow, how would you like to be remembered for that?!

#49 Tim Raines

Finally a player I know!  "Rock" won the 1980 MiLB Player of the Year award while playing for Denver of the American Association.  He ended up stealing a career total of 808 bases and was a 7 time all-star.  He won 3 World Series rings, a Silver Slugger award and was the 1987 MLB All-Star game MVP.

The base set is rather small at 120 cards when compared to some baseball releases these days so I can see how that would be an appealing factor for some.  I think Tristar has done an excellent job with this year's Obak set and it's a nice alternative to the variety of Topps products on the shelves.

2010 Panini NFL Stickers

My wife called me @ work this morning and asked me to stop on the way home and pick up a better pregnancy test.  You see she took one of those Dollar Tree brand tests earlier and she thought she saw a 2nd line, but wasn't sure.  Of course I couldn't wait the rest of the day not knowing for sure so I left work early and headed to Target.

Even with the looming "is she or isn't she" I still stopped by the card aisle since it felt like forever since I've been to Target.  On the shelf just above the pages and binders I saw a large red box full of NFL Sticker Albums from Panini.  I picked one up and flipped through it and was intrigued.  At $2.00 a pop (includes one pack of stickers) I was tempted, but instead just grabbed a pack since I was in a hurry.  Knowing nothing about these it was fun opening the pack.  So much fun in fact I forgot to scan the pack before ripping it open!

The packs are your standard Panini sticker packs featuring 8 stickers inside.  The front of the pack depicts 6 players including Drew Brees and Peyton Manning.

The first sticker in the pack was a shiny silver foil Houston Texans logo card #152.  From what I remember seeing in the album each division has a place in the front of the album for all of the team logos to be attached broken down by division.  I guess this is where this particular sticker would go.

The next sticker in the stack was a refractor-esque sticker of Kyle Orton.  There are no odds or anything listed on the sticker packs so I have no idea if these are seeded one per pack or not.  My guess is they are since these packs retail for a buck.

The back of the stickers aren't anything spectacular.  Rather boring if you ask me.

Next we have Mike Jenkins, James Laurinaitis, Brian Dawkins, Clay Matthews, Steve Smith and Lawrence Timmons.  I gotta say I like the basic design of the stickers, however the sticker of James Laurinaitis is #529!  How large is this set?!  With it being different than the trading cards that are already on the market and with the price being el-cheapo I can see how this will appeal to many different collectors.  If you are into stickers and the NFL then this release is right up your alley.

...and if you are still reading this - the pregnancy test was positive.  Coming summer of 2011, the 2nd little bundle of joy!

2008-09 Fleer Basketball

In honor of the brand new NBA season, I picked up a blaster of this stuff. I felt like it would get me back in an NBA mood after enduring a frustrating end to the baseball season. Here's one of the packs, selected more or less at random.

102 - Andrew Bynum (I keep hearing that the Lakers success this season might be tied to Bynum's health. I would think that Kobe Bryant's would be more important, but what do I know - other than the fact that I hate that team.)

157 - Monta Ellis (Terrific scorer who could probably be a superstar if put in the right situation.)

218 - JaVale McGee

72 of 132 - Chris Paul '88 (Insert thing based on the '88-'89 Fleer design.)

17 - Dwight Howard

49 - Mike Bibby (Originally a member of the Vancouver Grizzlies... remember them?)

85 - Ramon Sessions

70 - Ben Gordon (Gordon is British. I didn't know that.)

2010 Topps Chrome Baseball Hobby

There was a fresh box of Chrome at the Sports Dome in downtown Lawrence and so I picked one lucky pack and hit autograph gold!

#31 Carl Crawford

#157 Grady Sizemore

#144 Alex Rodriguez

This is my second A's autograph rookie autograph from Chrome this year. Josh was originally drafted by the Cubs and was traded to the A's as part of the Rich Harden trade in 2008.

#191 Josh Donaldson Rookie Autograph

1992-93 Fleer Spalding Basketball

Tonight is the first night of the new NBA season. I don't think it has a catchy name like Opening Day for baseball. The concept of Opening Day seems to be eroding from year to year in MLB anyway. Next season will start in the middle of the week, which is even more weird.

This is some sort of promo pack for Spalding using the 1992-93 Fleer basketball design. None of the cards are numbered, and the wrapper leaves little room for suspense.

Here's an ad for the main Fleer set itself. I bought a ton of these, as I did pretty much every Fleer set that was released when I was in high school.

- Larry Johnson (Grandmama was a very successful/weird ad campaign.)

- Scottie Pippen (All of the card designs are from the Schoolyard Stars subset, which makes me think that they were some sort of giveaway for students/young people.)

- Larry Bird

- Kevin Johnson (The mayor of Sacramento. Certain former NBA players take a shine to politics. Wasn't Charles Barkley thinking of running for office awhile back?)

Tonight is the night! I'll be at the Rose Garden in Portland, rooting for the Blazers.

2010 Topps Chrome Baseball

I can't believe I'm the first person to post a pack of 2010 Topps Chrome on this here blog. Come on, guys! I'm the collector who is always BEHIND the times. I like movies from the '70s! I still consider batting average a usable statistic! People my age have a general aversion to rap music!

I should not be the one debuting an ultra modern card set on APTBNL!

But, fine, I'll blaze territory for you.

This pack was actually extracted from one of those rack value packs. Each $8.99 value pack contains three individual four-card packs of shiny chrome and three orange refractors, which are separately wrapped from the individual packs.

I rather like these value packs, but I would buy even more of them if Topps made it a real value and bumped the price down about a dollar.

Anyway, here are your four cards from the pack:

Felix Hernandez: I'm calling it here and saying Hernandez beats out Sabathia and Price for the Cy Young Award. It's entirely possible I'm wrong, but I think enough writers have seen the light and don't rely solely on wins to choose the best pitcher in the land.

Brandon Phillips, purple refractor: Oooh, very nice. Putting purple refractors in retail value packs was a good move. Phillips may have sabotaged the Reds by opening his big mouth, but he's right: The Cardinals DO whine. Also, I think La Russa's been giving crying lessons to Bruce Bochy.

Shane Victorino: The Flyin' Hawaiian had a tough postseason. In general, the Phillies hit .216 as a team against the Giants. The Phillies have now disappointed me three postseasons in a row. Not good.

Manny Ramirez: Hey! It's an Ex-Dodger! I instinctively went to look up who the Dodgers got from the White Sox for Ramirez.

Heh. Silly me. I forgot Frank McCourt runs my favorite team.

OK, lads and lasses, there's your official APTBNL Chrome pack. But I'm done with the pioneering stuff. When Topps Update comes out, someone else is going to have to do it.

Oh, wait ...

2004 Bowman 1st Edition

(Topps censoring Delmon Young’s face from younger collectors)


2004. What happened in 2004? The world’s largest ocean liner, RMS Queen Mary 2, made its maiden voyage. The final episode of Friends aired. New Jersey’s finest James McGreevey came out publicly as a gay man. One of the world’s worst natural disasters occurred when a tsunami struck Indonesia a day after Christmas. We lost Ronald Reagan, Marlon Brando, Christopher Reeve, Janet Leigh, Reggie White, Tug McGraw, and Johhny Ramone in 2004.

That’s great and all Nick, but what the hell does this have to do with you? 2004 is the year I started collecting baseball cards. And I haven’t looked back. I have many goals as a card collector, and one of them is to collect every baseball card set from 2004. Impossible you say? Yeah, no kidding. But it’s always fun to try, right?

I picked up this pack of 2004 Bowman 1st Edition a while ago and was saving it for a rainy day. These cards were made six years, an eternity in baseball card years. To add a little spice to this pack, let’s go through each card and see if that player actually played professional baseball in 2010. And away... we… go.


#93: Jason Phillips
Survey says… no. Phillips last played in 2007 with the Toronto Blue Jays. Great start!

First Year #169: Matt Moses
No. Moses last played in 2009 with the Minnesota Twins organization, a place he’s been since being drafted by the club in 2003.

#114: Marlon Byrd
Yes. Marlon played with the Chicago Cubs last year and has two more years left on the three-year deal he signed before the 2010 season. He made a splash at the All-Star Game with a fantastic catch.

#129: Andy Pettitte
Um… yes.

First Year #287: Ryan Hankins
No. Hankins last played in 2005… a year after this card was made. Ouch.

First Year #305: Sheldon Fulse
It’s never a good sign when Baseball-Reference takes you straight to the Minor League page after typing in a player’s name. Fulse hasn’t played since 2008.

First Year #174: David Aardsma
Yes. Aardsma was the closer with the Seattle Mariners in 2010, giving M’s fans heart attacks every time he stepped on the mound. He blew five saves in thirty-one chances, or a .839 save percentage rate. Yikes.

First Year #194: Dan Giese
No. Giese last pitched for the Oakland A’s in 2009. The name Giese sounded familiar, and I had to dig deep in my brain to remember that he pitched for the Yankees in 2008. And he didn’t do half bad either, going 1-3 with a 3.53 ERA and a 1.2 WHIP.

#53: Luis Gonzalez
No. Luis last played in 2008 with the Florida Marlins. Many fans remember his monster 2001 season as he, Randy Johnson, and Curt Schilling carried the Arizona Diamondbacks to a World Series championship.

#165: Tom Gorzelanny
Yes. A player drafted by the Pirates, that doesn’t play for the Pirates anymore? Really? Gorzelanny was shipped to the Cubs in 2009 and has been pitching for them since.


Well, we could have done worse. But not much worse. Four out of ten players in the pack were playing professional baseball in 2010, for the people keeping score at home. Damn Bowman First Edition. Sweet 2004 nostalgia. For more posts from this handsome blogger, check out For Card’s Sake.

2010 Topps Update Series Hobby Version

In case you haven't heard yet, let me tell you, 2010 Topps Update is live. The set has 330 cards and you can read all the fine details here from the Beckett Blog.

This is a ho-hum pack with no great rookies or really anything special to write about. But it is nice to pull an Andre Dawson in a pack again.

#US-144 Eric Patterson

#US-327 Mike Stanton

#US-19 Russel Branyan

#CMT 143 Andrew Dawson 1978 Topps

#US-193 Ryan Theriot

#TR107 Aramis Ramirez

#US-221 Heath Bell All-Star

#US-210 Ubaldo Jimenez All-Star

Topps Attax David Price

#US-160 Josh Johnson